A conventional gas turbine engine employs one or more combustors positioned next to a compressor. Compressor exit air is mixed with fuel in the combustors and is burned, converting chemical energy to heat, expanding the air, and accelerating mass flow through a turbine. Certain turbine engines employ pulse detonation combustors.
Events peculiar to detonation combustion, such as mixing, ignition and deflagration-to-detonation transition, typically require larger dimension(s) to accommodate the pulse detonation tubes utilized for this type of combustion. It is desirable to provide continued improvements in efficiency using detonation combustion while minimizing any negative effects on an engine's size, weight, and rotordynamics.